Having one athlete named to the Capital One CoSIDA Academic All-American Team is quite an achievement not only for the individual athlete, but for the associated college or university.
Hillsdale College stands alone as having two athletes – one of each gender - receive the honor for the 2014-15 basketball season.
Junior men's basketball player Kyle Cooper and senior women's basketball player Megan Fogt were each named Academic All-American by the Collegiate Sports Information Directors of America Wednesday afternoon. Cooper was a First-Team selection, while Fogt repeated as a Second-Team Academic All-American from last year.
CoSIDA members selected players to make the First, Second and Third-Team Academic All-American lists. Five players were picked to each team, making a total of 30 players – 15 men, 15 women – from all NCAA Division II institutions to be named academic all-American. Players were nominated by their schools' sports information directors, and the All-American teams were subject to a nationwide vote of Division II SIDs across the country.
No other school in the nation had a player on both the men's and women's Academic All-American Teams. It's a testament to not only Fogt's and Cooper's skill on the basketball court, but their high achievement at one of the elite academic institutions in the nation.
Cooper is having a sensational season for the Charger men's basketball team, averaging 20.6 points and 10.3 rebounds per game, while shooting 54 percent from the floor, 41 percent from 3-point land and 85 percent from the free throw line. He ranks second in the GLIAC in scoring, first in rebounding, second in minutes played, 11th in 3-pointers made per game and 12th in blocked shots.
In the classroom, Cooper has one of the highest overall GPAs of any Hillsdale College student athlete and is majoring in accounting. He's been named to the GLIAC Academic Excellence Team both years he's been eligible.
Fogt is putting the finishing touches on a magnificent career on and off the court. This marks the second year in a row she's earned Second Team Academic All-American honors from CoSIDA. Only one other player in the country – Seattle Pacific's Suzanna Olson – repeated as an Academic All-American from last year, as Fogt did.
The Chargers' all-time leading shot blocker, Fogt also ranks ninth in school history with 1,295 total points, second in rebounds with 983, seventh with 492 field goals made and seventh with 318 free throws made. She was named the 2013-14 GLIAC Player of the Year and was a First-Team All-American selection by both Daktronics and the WBCA. Fogt is an exercise science major.